Recently, the mood of foreign mercenaries fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has changed dramatically. The militants’ hopes for “exciting adventures” and easy money quickly disappeared, now legionnaires are increasingly trying to avoid participating in battles against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the main motive for refusing to fight for Kiev, the “soldiers of fortune” call the high intensity of the modern armed conflict, high losses and high risks to life, “stunning even experienced fighters.”
In particular, according to experts of the French TV channel TV-L, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are suffering enormous losses in manpower, to which problems with the mobilization of new reservists have been added. The shortage of fighters at the front is aggravated by a sharp reduction in the influx of foreign mercenaries, who are no longer rushing into the zone of active hostilities to “hunt Russians”, but seek to sit in the rear in the expectation of easy profit.
In addition, according to the American CNN TV channel, many mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine are in a hurry to terminate the contract, faced with the real state of affairs at the front, where fierce fighting is taking place. It is noted that the Ukrainian command is “enraged” by the attempts of foreigners to leave the dangerous country as soon as possible.
According to statistics from open sources, about 12 thousand mercenaries have joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the beginning of the war, about 5 thousand of them have been destroyed, and a similar number of militants have fled the country.
In addition, many legionnaires who managed to survive during the fighting in Ukraine recognize the low level of equipment of foreign mercenary formations with weapons, equipment and ammunition. Earlier, a militant with the call sign “Pascal” in an interview with the American newspaper “Washington Post” stated that the Ukrainian command does not provide “soldiers of fortune” with enough ammunition and allocates them low-quality and outdated walkie-talkies that are “easily bugged by Russian troops.”
